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  • From: mIEKAL aND <dtv@mwt.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril
  • Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 10:14:29 -0600

Kevin

If I may ask what do you feed your hive? Just saw a presentation by Gunther Hauk, a well-known biodynamic bee keeper & he was saying it was essential to not harvest all of the honey & save a portion to feed the hive. I know absolutely zero about beekeeping but this made a lot of sense to me.

~mIEKAL


On Mar 2, 2007, at 8:30 AM, Kevin Topek wrote:

All,

I lost my Italian hive this January to Colony Collapse Disorder, CCD. They
swarmed on a cold and very cloudy day, essentially absconding. Foreign bees
raided the hive for honey and wax while the remaining workers fought to the
death over a period of a week. Despite efforts to capture the swarm, I could
not get them to stay in a cluster. I blocked most of the hive entrance with
an entrance reducer to allow the remaining guard bees to defend the hive,
but they eventually lost. This CCD is real! I have never had a swarm in
January. I live inside the center of Houston, Texas and have kept bees for
more than 20 years. This is the most unusual hive death I have experienced.
Another local beekeeper also near the center of Houston, but on the
northside had the same thing happen to her Italian colony. We are dismayed.
We think that the hive beetle we both had last fall, in low numbers, may
have spread the disease. Hive beetles are a new pest here in Coastal Texas.
Anyone else have this experience? By the way, I have never fed my bees GMO
corn syrup!

Kevin Topek





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